Wall Street’s takeover of the Obama administration is now complete. The mega-banks and their corporate allies control every economic policy position of consequence. Mr. Obama has moved rapidly since the November debacle to install business people where it counts most.

Meanwhile the hyenas across the aisle can barely contain their laughter. Just as they barely can keep a straight face as Barack Obama hides his unconditional surrender behind clichés about bipartisanship and compromise — while putting on a stern countenance and turning his sword (fierce rhetoric) against those unspeakable purists whom he has just sold out — lock, stock and barrel. It’s like watching the Serengeti drama of predator and prey, except that there is a bizarre lead actor who plays both roles. And the antelope keep expecting the protection of this hybrid who now prefers to idle with the fangs at the watering hole.

What is to be done? Liberals’ hopes have been dashed. The outlook is bleak — only storm clouds on the horizon. Worse, our country’s afflictions are fated to get worse. The Wall Street plutocracy is in control — their power reinforced and reconfirmed. Their brothers in the business world are crowing. The poor are cut loose, middle America is squeezed, public services are under the knife. The country is in a time capsule hurtling crazily through the 1920s hell bent for the Gilded Age of the 1890s. We’ve lost; we’ve lost with barely a fight.

Obama is just hysterically funny… And of course he slobbered all over Reagan in the primaries, as well.

OBAMA’S ODE TO REAGAN. “Ronald Wilson Reagan was a believer. As a husband, a father, an entertainer, a governor and a president, he recognized that each of us has the power as individuals and as a nation to shape our own destiny. He had faith in the American promise; in the importance of reaffirming values like hard work and personal responsibility; and in his own unique ability to inspire others to greatness,” President Obama writes in USA Today. “No matter what political disagreements you may have had with President Reagan — and I certainly had my share — there is no denying his leadership in the world, or his gift for communicating his vision for America.”

LOL. AND AFTER they had every availiable air-of-inevitability Press organ in the country touting how he had 10 million! – no 10.5! – No no 11 million!

Which brings us to the remaining relevant question – How can they now get every two-bit-nigger-for-rent in Chicago and across the country screaming about how Rahm’s being discriminated against? We know the answer to that of course.

Free Rahm!Free UP the 11 – NO $12 Million! Can’t a
homeless man run for office in America anymore?

FWIW The opinion is here.
Seems more than the usual hand wavey to me, but notes the distinction between “residency” and “domicile” and the distinction in their election law.

Sigh. Hindsight is 20/20 vision.
So after some serious Gore 2000 butthurt, 😆 – live and learn – Methinks it gives the rank and file something to worry their little heads about while the lawyers lawyer the brokers broker and they all pick clean the booty. I see Rahm getting on the Ballot in this pastiche, I’d be shocked if he doesn’t in this Strike a Blow for Gore and the Peepul Production: a 5-4 Donk State Supreme Court.
One is a Kennedy Shriver Merchandise Mart retainer LOL a Special Olympics boarder of Eunice (co-founder on THE Board ,not competing)who also Chaired the National Review Board of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops which investigates accusations of clerical sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church. She is a Dame of Malta.

Oh yes, heckuva job, call those rape chits in.

I’d be shocked if he isn’t put on the ballot with some “Son of Chicago” and Ich bin ein Berlinerslobber mixed in.

Chaired the National Review Board of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops which investigates accusations of clerical sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church. She is a Dame of Malta.

oh what a scream!

I wondered how many noticed that, in her ABORTIVE run fo NY senator, Camelotta did not know the Dem tick tock on abortion. (Aside from how apallingly inarticulate she was, poor scripted girlchick, at what?? 50+)

why? Cuz the Kennedys have always opposed it. In all its parts and pieces.

{Snip}
Specifically, the 2-1 majority concluded that Emanuel did not “reside in” Chicago for at least one year before the election.

Sure enough, Emanuel did not for some 18 months physically live in the Chicago home he shares with his wife and kids.

Wait fer it-

But Illinois law isn’t as black-and-white as the appeals court ruling makes it out to be.

Thank you, Incisive Constitutional Law Professor.

A quick read of the decision — and the dissent — reveals that Illinois courts have interpreted the residency provision pretty broadly, concluding that absence alone could not be used to disqualify a candidate. Emanuel — who was born in Chicago — spent some 18 months living in Washington and working for Obama; before that he commuted from Chicago to D.C. as a U.S. representative. During his stint in the White House, he never sold his Chicago home, never bought a home in D.C., kept his Illinois driver’s license, voted in Illinois and made clear his intention to return to his home state. Emanuel, in other words, was not a carpetbagger.

example of patheticism: Despite the torment I felt by the Football “Class” in a Pittsburgh, PA, area highschool …I smiled when I found out they won …..then again, why shouldn’t I, perhaps that team fully realizes they’re hired meat and they may as well make some money to take care of their battered bodies when they’re tossed out………..

indeed ….I’m still smiling ….when I get beyond myself …… I love human beings for the most part ….can never seem to get enough of them …. a kind ear, or ‘voice’ ….makes my heart go pitter pat ….and they do still exist,….in abundance

interesting comment hon ….it just brought to mind someone black ..who hasn’t bothered to vote for quite a few elections ….knowing the futility of it ….who thought Rahm was mixed ….my mind hopped into the ramifications of the puppeteers perhaps realizing that many of the duskier hues had that same thought…..

interesting asides …..the bay area’s longtime “black” FM radio station now reaches all the way into Santa Cruz California…, near a fifty mile change, I love R&B …so I have to turn the fucker off near everytime a commercial, or worse A Public Service Announcement comes on …….

How am I? I never know how to answer that question these days….mostly I say, “well, I could complain, but it wouldn’t do me any good, so I’m fine.”
😉

We’re hanging on! Boys are healthy, shod and fed, and even if we have to give up the house, we have a place to stay for the summer (with animals!), so I just keep keeping on, paying the bills and applying for jobs!

Here’s hoping the trip to the doc goes well! I’ll be thinking of you! And just in case I hadn’t said before, this is not a house we actually own, er, pay the bank for, so “losing” it isn’t exactly the same as it may be for others — mostly what I’m concerned about is keeping the kiddos in their schools….the ex seems ok with idea of moving apts, so they’ll have an address in the proper zone, as for me? Well, I’ve surfed many a couch…still trying to imagine a full-time job that’ll pay the bills will come my way before May….for now, back to working the 2 PT ones I have and humming Monty Python…

Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you’re chewing on life’s gristle
Don’t grumble, give a whistle
And this’ll help things turn out for the best…

And…always look on the bright side of life…
Always look on the light side of life…

If life seems jolly rotten
There’s something you’ve forgotten
And that’s to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you’re feeling in the dumps
Don’t be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle – that’s the thing.

And…always look on the bright side of life…
Always look on the light side of life…

For life is quite absurd
And death’s the final word
You must always face the curtain with a bow.
Forget about your sin – give the audience a grin
Enjoy it – it’s your last chance anyhow.

So always look on the bright side of death
Just before you draw your terminal breath

Life’s a piece of shit
When you look at it
Life’s a laugh and death’s a joke, it’s true.
You’ll see it’s all a show
Keep ’em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.

And always look on the bright side of life…
Always look on the right side of life…
(Come on guys, cheer up!)
Always look on the bright side of life…
Always look on the bright side of life…
(Worse things happen at sea, you know.)
Always look on the bright side of life…
(I mean – what have you got to lose?)
(You know, you come from nothing – you’re going back to nothing.
What have you lost? Nothing!)
Always look on the right side of life…

We’ve gotten news
{ 😦 🙄 😆 – BHHM}
that Rahm Emanuel has gotten tossed off the mayoral ballot by an appellate court in Illinois. We don’t have a sense yet of whether this is something his team has a good shot of reversing or not. But I must confess I find the whole issue sort of perplexing. I’m not particularly invested in the result one way or another.™ But {™ ™ ™ ™ – BHHM } election eligibility laws generally have very big exceptions for service in the federal government. And Rahm was first a congressman from Chicago and then the White House chief of staff. It really seems open and shut. The fact that he was leasing his Chicago home doesn’t seriously suggest he wasn’t planning on returning. If anything, the opposite.

Again, I don’t know the caselaw involved. And this is really an issue for Chicagoans. But {™ ™ ™ ™ – BHHM } I’m genuinely surprised this is even an issue.

…fine, linen hankies all around ….along with the antibacterial (from pressing “nasty” flesh, one would rather avoid) ….squirty thangs …mus’ be so disappointing when an elite mingles wit’ da lower classes, an’ cums up wit nuthin but MERSA …………..

For the second year in a row, the U.S. military has lost more troops to suicide than it has to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The reasons are complicated and the accounting uncertain — for instance, should returning soldiers who take their own lives after being mustered out be included? (that this is even considered an issue is an indication of how deeply sick this culture is – MitM)

But the suicide rate is a further indication of the stress that military personnel live under after nearly a decade of war.

Figures released by the armed services last week showed an alarming increase in suicides in 2010, but those figures leave out some categories.

Overall, the services reported 434 suicides by personnel on active duty, significantly more than the 381 suicides by active-duty personnel reported in 2009. The 2010 total is below the 462 deaths in combat, excluding accidents and illness. In 2009, active-duty suicides exceeded deaths in battle.

Last week’s figures, though, understate the problem of military suicides because the services do not report the statistics uniformly. Several do so only reluctantly.

snip

Some types of reservists are more cut off than others. Rep. Rush D. Holt, a New Jersey Democrat, says that members of the Individual Ready Reserve and other categories of citizen-soldiers do not receive a thorough screening for mental health issues when they return from deployments.

One of those soldiers, a constituent of Holt’s named Coleman S. Bean, was an Army sergeant and Iraq War veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder but could not find treatment. He took his own life in 2008.

Moved by Bean’s story, Holt wrote a bill requiring phone contacts with these reservists every 90 days after they come home from war. The House adopted Holt’s provision as part of its defense authorization bills for both fiscal 2010 and fiscal 2011. But conferees writing the final version of the bills took it out both years.

Holt said in December that Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain was responsible for that decision in the most recent bill. A spokeswoman for McCain, Brooke Buchanan, would not state his position on the provision. Instead, she said House members had removed it.

A House Armed Services Committee spokeswoman, Jennifer Kohl, said the House reluctantly pulled the provision from the bill because of the opposition of senators, whom she did not name.

Holt said a fuller reckoning of the number of suicides among military personnel and veterans is needed not so much to tell lawmakers and the public that there is a problem — that, he says, they know. Rather, it is needed to more accurately gauge the extent to which programs to help troubled troops are having an effect.

“In order to know whether the steps we’ve taken work,” Holt said, “we’re going to have to have more detailed knowledge of who’s out there.”

well maybe Ob can help. He served on Armed Services in the senate, as did Hilarious.

AND when the big Walter Reed mess broke in Wapo (2007?), it was reported that at the pay phones in the halls of the worst wing, on the walls were the tel numbers to the aides connected to Armed Services Com for Ob and McCain.

In a gravel pit at Boxgrove, just outside Chichester, the remains of a man have been discovered, half a million years old. Only a shin bone and two teeth were discovered, but his position, under thick layers of gravel show that he is the oldest ‘man’ so far discovered in Britain.

@@
The associated fauna – notably some voles’ teeth, show that the site is to be dated to a period before the ‘Anglian’ or ‘Great’ ice age, and should therefore be around 500,000 years old.

…I’m imagining “Micks” and “Brits” contending as “the “eldest” …it’s cute when one is drunk ..When sober ….it gets a bit bleaker …I think the fact is, that most of us won’t have a clue as to who precisely was “on first” by the time we die physically (energy never dies) ..and, even more pertinent?, “who will be last?” ..indeed, how many want to be last?

😆
Well seeing as how, Mission Accomplished,
he’s fleeing bankrupt Pennsylvania now…
MSNBC {Sorry Kieth} just signed the trendy
ED RENDELL for their political commentary stable
Might as well pay ‘im , eh?
…as they had Governor Casino Messiah,
that Public Pension Looting Gangster,
that Muni Bond Loader Upper and Retail Loanshark Shylock himself holding forth six or seven times a day.

Yes, So Growth oriented. Or just a growth. Same can be said of Larry O’Shyster, the Daleys, just different potato packaging.

Of course we have the younger set to look forward to… from the fightin’ Dem McPudleys to Cantor and Grayson, they’ll all be back. AND serviced by everybody from Cillizza and Russert’s kid to Ezra, Markos, and Capehart. 🙄

Like that joke goes, I do believe we ARE on the precipice of retardation setting in on our cloning efforts.

I am now being treated to the spectacle of Vanderbilt heir, Anchorman, and CNN’s Howard Zinn Chair of American History and Hagiography –
all one guy – Anderson Cooper – hold forth on the finer points of Our Progress™ in critique of Michelle Bachmann’s latest. Nothing like grappling with the low hanging fruit, eh Anderson?

I clicked off too soon.
Cooper has a great piece up now on some guy Andrew Shirvell, an Assistant Michigan Atty General AND Opus Dei? Westboro Churcher? Nazi Hunter? (Room for Everybody in Public Service!)

Evidently following the Del Dem career path on the Repub side: campaign staffer turned AG staffer for Cox, blog stalking and ratfucking his way while drawing a salary. What a fucking whack.

OUT THIS A.M. — 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer, “Trust Plunges in the United States While Resilient across the Globe” – From release:

“In a year marred by corporate crises and financial turmoil for European governments, trust in business and government showed marked resilience, according to the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer. Trust in business saw a two-point global increase … The United States was the outlier, as trust dropped across all institutions – business, government, NGOs, and media…. ‘Skepticism has increased as a result of the systemic impact of corporate and government crises, causing a transformation in the framework of trust,’ said Richard Edelman, president and CEO, Edelman.”

–Matthew J. Harrington, President and CEO, Edelman U.S., in a telephone interview:

“The inability for government and business to make any dent on unemployment is probably the largest factor in why the numbers declined this year in the U.S.” 4-page report http://politi.co/grID0m

Yeh, Yeh, Motherfuckerfucker:
RUSSIA IN GANGSTERISM AND OFFICIAL CORRUPTION 😆

U.S. trust in business fell by eight points to 46 percent – placing the world’s largest economic power within five points of last-place Russia – and decreased in government by six points to 40 percent, putting the U.S. among the bottom four countries with the least trust in government.

Progress! We will catch Russia and be on top of Afghanistan in no time!
PUT IT IN THE SPEECH, MOTHERFUCKER! 😆

😆 I can’t as New Jersey’s Designated Driver.
Hell, They needed SOMEBODY, last guy and all,
and the Poet Laureate spot under Christie went to a guy who submitted,Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
If You Ain’t Italian
Den Fuck Youze, Too

So I’ll have to sit back as Obby’s soaring rhetoric borrows from Matthews, The Bard Tweety:
“We need to make Stuff.”
Like mugs and stuff.
Ya know?

Trolloping through Chi- town today, I see
Dame Malta on the Illinois SC…
may have to recuse herself in Rahm’s case. 🙄
{ I doubt it. Hubby’s posture can free her up with the rubber stamp. I’d be shocked otherwise.}
Anyways..As the lawyers lawyer, the brokers broker…
ETC.

The two Appellate Court judges responsible for tossing Rahm Emanuel from the ballot in February’s mayoral race both won their jobs after being anointed by a Chicago political power broker who openly supports an Emanuel opponent.

Whether or not their opinions are colored by politics, the case has recharged the debate among critics who decry a process of selecting judges that relies more heavily on political clout than merit.

Longtime Appellate Court Judges Thomas E. Hoffman and Shelvin Louise Marie Hall — who on Monday ruled that Emanuel’s stay in Washington precludes him from running for mayor this year — were both judicial candidates slated for election by the Cook County Democratic Party judicial slating committee chaired by Ald. Edward Burke, 14th.

Burke, one of Chicago’s most powerful politicians, holds huge sway in the election of judges at every level, including the Illinois Supreme Court, where his wife, Anne, sits as a justice and where the Emanuel ballot question is now headed for a final decision.

“The real question now is whether Anne Burke must recuse herself,” said Malcolm Rich, executive director of the Chicago Council of Lawyers, 😆 a group that evaluates judges and advocates reform. 😆 😆

– – > “Yes, there is an inherent conflict. These judges are slated by politicians. That is just the way it is.

Oh that last one is RICH.
Translation??“I Malcom Rich, Of the Chicago Lawyery/ Judgey / Reformey..Council Thingey are UTTERLY USELESS!
And WE DO A DAMN FINE JOB!

What a Hoot all around.
Laird Burke, the Hubsbsand Kennedy Retainer, Not to be confused with the Mrs., The Good Lord Judge Marquess Burke, Dame of Malta, The Whifess of Kennedy Retainer..LOL Man Burke “Openly Supports” Gery Chico {Jack of the Table at Parkland}. What Intrigue!

Shiyaaat. Malcom Rich had the takeaway.

GMAFB. Openly supports in Democratic politics most frequently means the cement is being poured.

Daaamn these people DO put on a good show, tho. SO…IF Madame Judge Dame Malta votes recuses or against Rahm…any gussses on whether Rahm gets a Repub or two to vote in favor of …wait for it..”Ballot Access”?

Valeriie Jarrett made it clear this am Foundling wants IDF guy on the ballot.

While I am at it, very interesting entry at Cpunch on the Ob’s birther problem (or, I should say, documents problem). I’ve said for a long time, he makes all his own problems… And now Gov Abercombie, used to be congresscritter Abercrombie (idiot then, idiot now), has greatly expanded how long he has known the Foundling. Practically claims to be have been present at the birth. 😆

Last I heard, he just happened to be at Punahoe a few years ahead of the Foundling.

NOTED: Obama Disagrees with Illinois Appeals Court, believes Rahm Emanuel Is Eligible to Run for Chicago Mayor, Valerie Jarrett says. “I think that he believes that [Rahm is] eligible and I believe that he believes that Rahm will pursue his appeal in the courts. And as he said then, he thinks Rahm would make a terrific mayor,” Jarrett told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America” today. http://abcn.ws/fntfPQ

LOL. The fix then HAS to be in with a such a ringing, unqualified endorsement from Believes, Thinks, Believes as parroted by that drag of a sorority sister, I’ll Caddy!} Jarret.
🙄

Anyways, it gives the traders a little more time to make deals.

NTIM anymore than when Specter was retired: the wars and plunder go on, but I will be shocked if Rahm doesn’t get this wrapped with a bow from the Illinois SC. Then the hard fought Rahm-as-underdog slobber. Maybe Sylvester Stallon can play him in a Rocky 12 tie in .Adwieennnnnne!!??
Where’s yo wedding dwess? ETC
Al Gore as manager. I dunno, create a coupla jobs.
SOME Shite.

NOTED: There will be an empty seat in the House Chamber tonight for Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Black ribbons will be distributed to members of Congress to wear during the State of the Union in honor of the victims of the Tucson tragedy.

Well, {clearing throat,}
{donning lab coat all lab coaty like now}
She was shot right thru!
Right past that area of the brain that controls Optimism for Jobs and , ya know –~Association with Death.
It’s very consistent with the findings! 😆

So.

At Thursday's debate, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren defended their Medicare for All plan. They faced criticism from several rivals, including Senator Amy Klobuchar, who described it as a "bad idea," and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who claimed the bill shows Sanders and Warren do not "trust the American people."

At the third presidential primary debate in Houston, Texas, senator and 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Warren also spoke about her stance on U.S. trade policy and how "our trade policy in America has been broken for decades."

After being questioned about the crisis in Venezuela, Senator Bernie Sanders defended his vision of democratic socialism. "I agree with what goes on in Canada and in Scandinavia: guaranteeing healthcare to all people as a human right. I believe that the United States should not be the only major country on Earth not to provide paid family and medical le […]

Debate moderator Jorge Ramos of Univision grilled former Vice President Joe Biden over the Obama administration's deportation record. Biden refused to answer whether he did anything to prevent Obama from deporting a record 3 million people.

A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Friday demanded internal emails, detailed financial information and other company records from top executives of Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc, Apple Inc, and Alphabet Inc's Google, widening the antitrust probe of Big Tech.

U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Friday asked a government watchdog to look into the Trump administration's decision to launch an antitrust probe into four automakers cooperating with California on tighter greenhouse gas emissions limits that Trump is trying to eliminate.

A lawyer for former FBI official Andrew McCabe pressed U.S. prosecutors on Friday to drop their politically sensitive case against him, citing reports that suggest they may be having trouble securing criminal charges.

Media

from Howl

I'm with you in Rockland
where we wake up electrified out of the coma
by our own souls' airplanes roaring over the
roof they've come to drop angelic bombs the
hospital illuminates itself imaginary walls collapse
O skinny legions run outside O starry
spangled shock of mercy the eternal war is
here O victory forget your underwear we're free
I'm with you in Rockland
in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea-
journey on the highway across America in tears
to the door of my cottage in the Western night

October 7 1955

"a remarkable collection of angelson one stage reading their poetry"
"I think Allen Ginsberg standing up there reading - putting himself on the line - was one of the two bravest things I've ever seen. Remember, it was '55. People had crew cuts, and they looked at you like you were misplaced cannon fodder. The country was being run by Luce publications. It was a dangerous, cold, ugly time, and it was scary. . .
In all our memories no one had been so outspoken in poetry before. We had gone beyond a point of no return. None of us wanted to go back to the grey, chill, militaristic silence, to the intellectual void - to the land without poetry - to the spiritual drabness. We wanted to make it new and we wanted to invent it and the process of it as we went into it. We wanted voice and we wanted vision."
-Michael McClure

Democrats…

Same as goddam fucking forever.
Over and over, in election year after election year, GE and MidTerms both… the Dems start to purr and preen, they stretch luxuriously - at just being TOLD they are going to win [...]
It never fails.
... in February of 2002, looking over the already joyless congressional stragglers willing to be drafted for duty… they barely dreamed, yet, it was even possible (Howard, a different person then, had not arrived to say it could be done)… but one thing was clear, we could not rely on the party to swing it. Could not. You could smell it, they would screw the deal. And I am not talking about Howard and primary issues here. By the end, that was a passing political story. Chuck it on the heap.
[...]
Upshot? The Republicans make it thru. They hold on.